Metropolitan Volodymyr (Viktor Sabodan)
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Metropolitan Volodymyr (also known as Vladimir) (secular name Viktor Sabodan), is the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) (UOC-MP). Metropolitan Volodymyr's official title is : His Beatitude Vladimir, Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine. As head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), he is the head of the only Ukrainian church to have canonical standing (legal recognition) in Eastern Orthodoxy world-wide.
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[edit] Early Life
Viktor Sabodan was born on November 23, 1935 in a peasant family in Khmelnytskyi region.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s he studied at Odessa and later Leningrad Theological Seminary.
In 1965 he completed the post-graduate course at the Moscow Theological Academy and was appointed Rector of the Odessa Theological Seminary and elevated to the rank of Archimandrite. In 1966 he was appointed Deputy Head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission to Jerusalem.
[edit] Episcopacy
In 1969 he was nominated Bishop of Chernihiv and temporary administrator of Sumy Diocese. On September 9, 1973 he was elevated to the rank of Archbishop of Moscow Diocese and Rector of the Moscow Theological Academy and Seminary.
On 16 July 1982 he was appointed to Rostov-on-Don Diocese and elevated to the rank of Metropolitan. From 1984 he was Patriarchal Exarch of Western Europe, and from 1987, a permanent member of the Holy Synod, Chancellor of Moscow Patriarchate.
In 1992, he was elected by the Kharkiv Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as Metropolitan of Kiev, and Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Later than year he was enthroned as Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine, replacing Metropolitan Filaret who was excommunicated for allegedly participating in "schismatic activities."
He is the author of numerous research papers on theology, the majority of which were included in the six-volume edition of his works published in 1997-1998.
Metropolitan Volodymyr was awarded Yaroslav the Wise (Fifth Class) state order in 2000 by the Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma.
Metropolitan Volodymyr enjoys singing and collects recordings of Ukrainian folk songs as well as stamps and postcards. He has no objections to a good meal.
